Frances Cairns

Ms. Cairns has extensive education and technology background working both as an administrator at four universities as well as leading the higher education divisions at Macromedia and Apple, and worldwide learning education services at Dell.Twitter · Website

Brief Biography

Frances Cairns is the Founder & CEO of Campus Quad. She established the company in 2012 with the vision to leverage mobile technology to improve college retention, graduation rates and student success. Launched in October 2013, the Campus Quad mobile platform and app allows students to instantly create and connect to content that’s relevant to their university environment fostering greater student engagement and campus affinity.

Frances has focused her career on the nexus of technology, content and learning. She has a passion for developing innovative digital products that encourage connection, community and a global ethos. Her career has dynamically extended from executive roles at universities to key leadership roles in the education segments of major brands Apple, Dell and Macromedia (now Adobe). Drawing upon these experiences, Frances has successfully cracked the complex and relationship-driven student and university market on several occasions, bringing to market innovative solutions including iTunesU, Apple LapTops, iPod, Apple WorkGroup Cluster, Dell Education Services, and Macromedia Accessibility and Learning Solutions.

Following her corporate high-tech career Frances launched The Cairn Group a consulting company which teamed with major brands to bring to market two new digital content products including, Disney Digital Books, and iChapters now (Cengage Brain). As President of The Cairn Group, she served as a business strategist for leading brands, Disney, Cengage, The Smithsonian, Audible, Griffin Technology, O’Reilly Media, and Safari Books Online, and more.

As the market shifted to mobile, Frances founded Inkstone, a mobile development and SaaS delivery platform adopted by major brands including: MINI Cooper, Apple, Williams Sonoma and Bonnier.Prior to her high tech industry experience, Frances served as an administrator in higher education at the University of Arizona, University of Wisconsin Eau Claire, Western Michigan University and University of Findlay.

She is a recipient of a Fulbright scholarship and raised over $10 million in federal and private grants to support adaptive learning research and international exchange.